PSY424H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Okcupid, Libido, Orgasm
Oct 26: Sexuality: Naked Truths (chap 9)
• Gender + sex drive
o men report more sex drive, more lifetime orgasms, have more permissive sex attitudes*
(one big exception is when it comes to same-sex sexual behaviour, where women have
more permissive attitude), buy more pornography, + prefer more variety (this list stays
consistent across their life time, whereas for women their preferences change)
o argues that men have more access but refuted by looking at factors that are equal across
the genders, found that:
▪ men have more thoughts + fantasies about sex
▪ masturbate more (but women can do it more since have shorter refractory period,
ie. can have another orgasm after previously having one)
▪ more sex with strangers (exp. person on campus asks strangers to have sex with
them, 0% women said yes but could it be more of safety, ie. not getting killed?)
▪ men have higher ideal frequency + number of partners
o gay men have sex more often than lesbian women
o boys interested in sex earlier (argument: females mature sexually earlier than males)
o men succumbing to sexual temptation may be due to stronger sexual impulses rather than
weaker inhibitory abilities (Tidwell & Eastwick, 2013)
▪ so maybe both have equal sex drive, but women are able to inhibit it
• are sexes really that different
o gender differences in reports of many differences disappear when participants think they
are hooked up to an accurate lie detector (Alexander & Fisher, 2003)
▪ suggests there might be social norms that push women to inhibit their sexuality
o median number of desired partners was the same for men + women
o men think about sex more, but also think about other “selfish” needs more (food, sleep)
▪ they are thinking about self-gratification more
o self-reports of orgasm indistinguishable across genders
▪ exp. write out description of orgasm, take out any info that tells about their
gender, then give it to another participant who has to identify whether the
description came from a man or woman
• result: could not do it reliably, there was a general narrative (build up of
tension + then a release) => subjective feelings of orgasms are the same
• erotic plasticity
o idea that women have more flexibility in their sexuality
o women show more changes in frequency + variety across time
▪ can refer to any sexual behaviour: frequency, acts,
o research has been focused more on which biological gender they prefer:
▪ report more lifetime change in orientation (Kinnish et al., 2005)
• 65% of lesbian women report a different previous identification, 39% of
gay men
• OK Cupid: 33% of straight women + 13% of straight men report same-
sex experience (may be an advantage to women = might be a signal for
availability)
• Plasticity + self-reported attraction
o heterosexual men report more attraction to + spend more time viewing attractive female
vs. male models pictures (Lippa, 2010)
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▪ heterosexual women report attraction to + view both (does not mean that women
are interested in both)
o exp. fill out self-report survey to rate how high sex-drive is (Lippa, 2006)
▪ men high in sex drive report more attraction to preferred sex (straight guys
attracted to women, gay men attracted to men) => so are driven to a particular
stimuli
▪ heterosexual women high in sex drive report more attraction to men + women
than those low in sex drive (no conclusive results for lesbian women)
• plasticity + genital response
o use device called plasmagraph, female photo-plasmagraph (are invasive, so who are these
people that are willing to come in the lab for such tests?) + expose participant to sexual
stimuli
o heterosexual men show stronger genital response to female stimuli than male stimuli
(Chivers, 2004)
▪ women show response to both, but report more subjective arousal for male
stimuli
• r (subjective.objective) = .66 for men (their correlation between self-
reported= subjective arousal vs. physiological report=objective), .26 for
women
o men respond more to gender, women to sexual actions (Chivers et al., 2007)
▪ 3 types: videos of actual sex acts w/ another person, masturbating on own, + just
naked pictures
• For men: if there was a naked a women, regardless in which of the 3
forms, responded the same
• For women: regardless of which sex was engaging in sexual act, women
responded to it + did not respond to naked pictures
▪ So why do women have such responses?
• response to protect genitals from injury in case of unwanted sexual
activity?
o Evolutionary basis: lubrication response is a low-cost strategy to
prevent damage
• female as the human “default,” thus with more bisexual potential?
• socialization practices?
o Men might have more pressure to be not responsive to men
stimuli
• female sexuality as relationship-centered rather than body-centered?
(Peplau, 2001)
• sexual orientation
o consistent desires or fantasies toward people, animals, or objects
o Freud
▪ had great contributions (ex. the talking cure), but in terms of sexuality, did not
have great ideas since have not been able to find empirical support:
▪ heterosexuals: desire for other sex parent transferred outside of family to avoid
conflict with same sex parent
▪ gay men
• strong fixation with mother (will not be able to find any women like her)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
